LAKE CHARLES—McNeese women's basketball missed several point blank layups here Thursday night in its 71-59 Southland Conference loss to New Orleans to fall to 10-9 overall and 5-3 in league play. The Cowgirls will travel to Abilene, Texas to face Abilene Christian on Saturday.
 
The Cowgirls managed to get one play in double figure scoring, that being senior Amber Donnes who ended the game with 12 points. Junior Frederica led all players with 14 rebounds with eight coming on the defensive end.
 
UNO (10-8, 5-3 SLC) set the tone early in the game when Randi Brown drained one of her five three-pointers of the game to give UNO the early lead. The Privateers led for all but 11 seconds in the game when Victoria Rachal gave McNeese a 13-11 lead with four minutes left in the first quarter. The Cowgirl lead was short lived as UNO scored five straight points to take a lead they wouldn't give up.
 
The Privateers held a 32-28 halftime lead before taking their first double digit lead on a layup by Brown early in the third quarter. UNO held its largest lead of the game of 16 points with 2:33 left in the third.
 
McNeese cut the lead to less than 10 points twice in the fourth quarter. Mady Brasseaux opened the quarter by nailing a three-pointer to cut the lead to nine (46-55) but UNO's Brown answered with a trey on the next trip down the floor to bring the lead back to 12.  The Cowgirls couldn't convert a basket for three minutes until Donnes picked up a steal and went the length of the court for a layup and then a Mercedes Rogers hit a three with 2:56 to play to bring McNeese within eight points (61-53).
 
UNO would outscore McNeese 10-6 the rest of the way, scoring eight of their final 10 points from the free throw line.
 
The Cowgirls didn't have their best shooting night, ending the game shooting 33.3 percent from the field (21-63) and made 6 of 24 three-pointers while committing 19 turnovers.
 
On the other hand, UNO shot 41.9 percent from the field (26-62) and made 7 of 17 three-pointers.